From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,33e793a459e66944 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Thomas.Kendelbacher@erno.de (Thomas Kendelbacher) Subject: Re: Choosing C++ instead of Ada Date: 1996/10/28 Message-ID: <55218t$l5r@mailsrv2.erno.de>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 192684932 references: organization: Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Space Infrastructure reply-to: Thomas.Kendelbacher@erno.de newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney) writes: >Has anyone seen this web page: > >_Choice.html> > >Two professors from England explain why they teach C++ as a first-year >language, instead of teaching Ada or Eiffel or Modula-2 etc. Since their >charts list Ada as lacking support for object-oriented programming, perhaps >they don't realize there's a new Ada standard (not to mention free >compilers) that does. > >Pedagogues: any comments about the paper? Just FYI: The October issue (#5/96) of "Informatik-Spektrum", the official journal of the Gesellschaft fuer Informatik (German computer science association) contains an article where some Profs. describe their programming curriculum which consists _only_ of C++, although they list its teaching disadvantages in their article (taking too much time to teach low-level details instead of general programming concepts, due to complex/cryptic syntax etc.) One of their main reasons why they choose C++ over Eiffel, Ada etc. is: They intend to confront the students with the "'dark side' of programming" (verbatim!) to better prepare them for reality. Now, how do pedagogues comment on this? To give you a correct picture: This is not the programming curriculum for university students of computer science, but for a so-called "Fachhochschule", which, in the German education system, is a special school/college which provides only a degree somewhat below a bachelors degree. They don't have very much time for programming courses in their curriculum; it's even tight for the basics of a single programming language. Regarding the article: I couldn't disagree more to most of it. But there is one sentence in it which deserves a second thought: The students are said to be "highly motivated" because they jump at C++ after all the hype they've heard and read about it. Given that they can learn just a single language at school, they assume that they will "need" C++ to get a job; maybe they are not even that wrong, the way things are. -- Thomas Kendelbacher | email : Thomas.Kendelbacher@erno.de (preferred) DASA RI / Abt. RIT14 | voice : +49 421 539 5492 (working hours) Postfach 28 61 56 | or : +49 421 576 9670 (any other time) D-28361 Bremen | fax : +49 421 539 4529 (any time) Germany